Welcome back, UW Oshkosh!

On March 22nd, OYE had the pleasure of once again hosting our friends from the University of Wisconsin in Oshkosh. This year, we welcomed nine new student volunteers and welcomed back their student advisor, Chelsea Redger.

As with all volunteers that pass through OYE's doors, we strive to provide a well-rounded experience that leaves our volunteers with a better sense of Honduran reality and the feeling of being a part of creating positive change in Honduras. We accomplish this by offering a variety of academic, cultural and community engagement activities, all of which promote cultural exchange and interaction between the volunteers, OYE scholars and the local community.

Trash and Trees Bring Us Together.

“Hands on El Progreso” took place on January 26th at the Río Pelo in the neighborhood of Penjamo located just outside of El Progreso’s town center. The event brought together 100 volunteers and various sponsors and organizations.

The collaboration between OYE, the municipal government, the Red Cross, Fire and Police Departments and the Penjamo neighborhood allowed for the execution of a safe and successful event.

“Hands on El Progreso” was inspired by a University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh (UWO) event called “Hands on Oshkosh”. Participation in “Hands on Oshkosh” has reached over 300 students per semester since its inauguration in 2010. Volunteer Angie Dusenberry introduced this event to the OYE scholars in the hopes that it would inspire volunteerism and unite the community.

The collaboration between OYE, the municipal government, the Red Cross, Fire and Police Departments and the Penjamo neighborhood allowed for the execution of a safe and successful event.

Recruiting volunteers to pick up trash seems daunting, but ultimately proved to be an easy task. OYE scholar Oscar Osorio and Angie presented the event at OYE’s Entrega de Becas event, our annual welcoming ceremony for first time and returning OYE scholars and their families. By highlighting event details, they sparked the interest of many of the scholars.

Upper left: Fredy Aguilar from the Municipal Department
of Environment. Upper right: Volunteer Angie
Dusenberry. Bottom: OYE scholarship students.

January 26, the day of the event, was a whirlwind. The first 50 volunteers who arrived received matching "Hands on El Progreso" T-shirts. Participants included OYE scholars, their families, firefighters and community members. Everyone came together at the Penjamo community center, where a representative of the municipal government warned the community about the dangers of pollution and deforestation and emphasized community responsibility in their prevention.

After the inauguration, the participants cleaned and planted trees along the Pelo River for two hours, filling over 50 bags with trash and planting nearly 100 trees. It was inspiring to see the diversity of the participants, from local public servants to children, and the excitement about future community engagement efforts.

Collage of photos of OYE scholars and community participants throughout the "Hands on El Progreso" river clean-up and reforestation event.

A huge thanks goes out to all the participants and the effort Angie Dusenberry put into organizing this event for OYE and El Progreso.

Note: Much of the content of this blog post comes from Angie Dusenberry´s volunteer write-up. 

The Super Becados - A Team that Works

If you’ve worked or are social with people who work at NGOs you’ve heard the age-old adage “overworked and under-paid.” That’s precisely how an NGO should be running because at the end of the day as much of the money flowing in, in our case largely from individual donors’ pockets is earmarked to go directly towards the organizations mission.  Many people in the field take on impossible loads of work and responsibility that would be handsomely rewarded were the projects producing a monetary profit instead of social good. However, the opportunity to know that one’s work is viewed both qualitatively and quantitatively as improving societal outcomes or contributing to development is a very positive externality, attracting people to the heavy workloads and sacrifices of small non-profits.

OYE is no exception. Like any great NGO, OYE funnels your generous donations as directly into its programs to empower at-risk Honduran youth as possible. In 2013 OYE operated with only three full-time staff members and one part-time accountant. In 2014 the team has changed just slightly, bring our account Carlos Galeas on board full-time (congrats Carlos!). With such a trim streamlined team how does OYE run a scholarship program, personal and professional capacity building classes, an art program, a sports program, a magazine program, a graphic design program, and a radio program?

The answer is very creatively. 

As OYE approaches the midway point of January 2014 it is midway through an iterative training process for new youth leaders. These leaders, or project coordinators, are the key to OYE’s ability to achieve so much with such a limited professional staff. So let’s take a look at how this works:

OYE has adopted a philosophy that permits our actions to be both a means to an end and an end in themselves. That is to say that OYE’s mission is to create socially conscious youth leaders that serve as agent of positive change in their communities, but to achieve that we must rely on OYE’s own socially conscious youth leaders, our youth coordinators. Patrick Ahern, a long time OYE volunteer, has affably dubbed these youth coordinators “Superbecados.”

Superbecados are the youth that demonstrate strong leadership qualities and a commitment to see OYE’s youth projects grow. We have been blessed with incredible Superbecados over the years like Yarli Yanez, Gerald Velasquez, and Fabiola Oro who have taken the Radio, Art, and Magazine projects to new astounding new heights.
In 2014 we are proud to introduce a new group of Superbecados. These are youth that have excelled as leaders and members of their respective projects. With no further ado OYE is proud to present OYE’s keys to success in 2014-its civic engagement project coordinators or Superbecados: 

•  Sports – Erick Estrada and Heili Aguilar
•  Revista Jovenes (magazine) – Fabiola Oro
•  Design (Adobe) – Oscar Osorio
•  Radio Ritmo Online – Heydi Reyes
• Arte la Calle – Jefry  Yoel, Yosseth Pacheco, and Claudia Pavon 

Dunia, our Program Coordinator, has dedicated the month of January to developing the skills these youth will need to succeed as Superbecados. She has developed a comprehensive training program including modules of leadership, conflict resolution, assigning roles, developing profiles, OYE’s internal politics, and the development and administration of projects.

Stay tuned to see these Superbecados guide their projects into new uncharted waters expanding OYE’s impact and empowering other at-risk Honduran youth.

Calling All Young Leaders and Change Makers!

As 2013 draws to a close OYE is more than happy to turn its attention to the future, and this means selecting new scholars and planning for the 2014 year. This past weekend the process of preparing for 2014 kicked off in earnest as we interviewed potential OYE Scholars. With board members settled to arrive at the end of this week the tumultuous agenda preparing for next year shows no sign of slowing down. Board members, beneficiaries, and staff will participate in both long and short term planning sessions.

Program Coordinator, Dunia Perdomo, Introduces the first exercise.

This past weekend the organization hosted its first round of interviews for 2014 OYE scholars. In addition to returning OYE scholars, approximately 30 local youth were invited to participate in both

OYE Volunteers Morgan and Alex
observe new applicants with board mem-
ber Walter Molinari (Black t-shirt).

group and individual interviews. For the first time, OYE implemented a dynamic Group element, allowing a diverse committee to evaluate how applicants interacted among their peers. Divided into groups of youth with like ages, the applicants were given challenges and the committee assessed who took leadership roles, who was a good listener, who demonstrated rational thinking or deduction, and what was the general group dynamic. This was the first time that OYE has used such tactics to gain a deeper understanding of how applicants think, function, and transact with their peers.

First time applicants work together

In addition to being a great observational tool, the dynamics gave the applicants a chance to accommodate themselves and gain some confidence before entering the individual interviews. The individual interviews give the applicants an opportunity to express their hopes and aspirations and convey things that one cannot see during a dynamic group activity. As Walter Molinari pointed out, the personal interviews are essential to finding youth with leadership potential, as opposed to those who have already developed a strong sense of leadership and voice. At OYE we are seeking youth with positive attitudes and a desire to make their community a better place, a clear distinction from a competitive drive and take-charge attitude. Walter lauded the individual interviews as a great tool, identifying some of OYE’s greatest leaders like Gerald and Sandra who never would have come across in a group interview.

Activity #1, Applicants collaborate to build
unique model homes

The next phase of the process involves home visits. This allows OYE staff to know where the scholars live and meet their families. Vice versa the families of OYE scholars have the chance to meet OYE staff. Both sides arrive to a better understanding of the other. Information is confirmed and OYE has the chance to develop a personal relationship with its community. (This is by far my favorite part of the process.)

All in all the process is evolving and offers a well-rounded perspective on aspiring OYE scholars. The applicants this year have been inspiring. It is so hard to select the ones that

Applicants work as pitch team, selling
their model home to OYE

will receive OYE scholarships, but as our programs expand  we can realistically offer each and every applicant the chance to benefit from OYE’s Leadership and Capacity Building classes and participate in OYE youth-led community outreach programs.

Eastern Mennonite University - Volunteers Launch Environmental Campaign

What a week!

OYE just wrapped up another group trip with Eastern Mennonite University this past Saturday. The group was made up of 19 students participating in a six week credited university program. After two weeks in Copan Ruinas, a beautiful and important historical and cultural site in Western Honduras, at a La Guacamaya Spanish School, the group dedicated a week of their program to volunteer with OYE and learn about youth development efforts and national reality with OYE.

The EMU students spent the week designing a recycling and environmental campaign at San Jose Elementary. The school, located only one block away from OYE's office, welcomed OYE's scholars and the international volunteers to supplement a program they had already started with the sixth graders around recycling. The established program involved the recycling of cans, bottles, plastic, paper, cardboard, and electronics. According to teachers the students were very involved in the endeavor and loved the hands on action of gathering and sorting the recyclable products.  There was definitely enthusiasm, and the economic incentive of receiving cash for the recycled products ensured the youth's participation; however, the teachers highlighted a lack of understanding about why recycling was important and how waste can effect the natural world. That's where OYE came into play...

The Campaign

We put the challenge in the hands of the EMU students, many of whom are education majors, to design a campaign that would engage the young students and building their knowledge and interest in recycling and the environment.

The campaign involved:

1. The creation of an environmental mural.

2. The creation and distribution of recycling receptacles that  feature smaller murals and themes about recycling.

3. Development of games and exercises to teach about sustainability and environmental degradation.

4. Writing and illustrating a unique and relatable children's story focused on recycling.

5. Hosting an environmental assembly and workshop with the students of sixth grade.

In typical El Progreso style everything came together at the last-minute. Thursday morning, the day of the assembly, the art students and volunteers put the finishing touches on the mural , the EMU volunteers laminated their children's story, we picked up bookmark prizes, and gathered everyone together at the school. Over 60 sixth graders turned out for the event, many coming to school early that day just to see what was going on. We divided the youth into six stations. Station one read the children's story, station two played a recycling trivia game with facts about recycling and the environment in Honduras, station three played environmental memory cards, station four played a timeline game about the life of a plastic bottle, station five was FACE PAINTING, and station six played a "Who am I" game with prompts like "greenhouse gas." Every 15 minutes the students changed stations until everyone had cycled through each activity.

We were lucky to have the local television station, Teleprogreso, join us at the event. It was a great chance for the community to see and meet that big group of gringos walking around all week and learn a little bit more about OYE. Thanks to the report on the nightly news EMU and OYE's message about the importance of recycling and the environment will arrive to a much larger audience.

A huge thanks to the EMU volunteers for your hard work making this a successful campaign and a great week of service and learning. Additionally, a huge thank you to all the OYE scholarship students that made this trip happen. These trips and projects are all about cultural exchange and are not possible without the hard-work and teamwork of both OYE scholars and international volunteers.

OYE is looking forward to improving its group trip program and building strong/sustainable relationships with Universities like EMU. If you know other universities interested in such programs or Alternative Breaks please pass this blog and/or OYE's contact on oyehonduras@gmail.com

Special Thanks to KM2

 To a Great Future with KM2 Solutions!

Walter Molinari hands OYE director Marisol Fuentes a
donation of 26,977.60 Lempira, on behalf of KM2 Solutions

OYE is proud to announce the growth of a strong relationship with KM2 Solutions. Beyond the monetary support, OYE is looking forward to building a great relationship and a great future with KM2 Solutions.

KM2 has demonstrated a real desire to contribute to OYE’s philosophy of integrated development and make a difference in its community. This means they are giving more than money. Walter, KM2’s public relations manager, has taken the initiative to reach out to OYE in dynamic ways. We look forward to innovative collaborations with KM2 staff and facilities to bring our capacity building classes to a new level. Ideas for future alliances include incorporating Ted-talks into our capacity building program to touch on pertinent themes and stir a dialogue that will be moderated by professionals form the offices of KM2.

Although KM2 is a multinational organization its staff is principally composed of native Hondurans that have expressed an interest in giving back to their communities.  Although we cannot thank KM2 enough for the financial donation of $27,000 Lempiras, the real story here is the excitement about this vast expansion of OYE’s family here in Honduras.

To the individuals that compose the work force of KM2, we want to give each of you our most sincere gratitude.  Perhaps independently your donation seemed like a small sum or a small sacrifice but together your donations are converted into the hope, self-esteem, and future of at-risk Honduran youth. Your donations will be directly invested into OYE’s programs ensuring that our 50 scholarship students will continue receiving an integrated education that encourages and empowers them to become the voices and leaders of their communities.

Check out KM2 Solutions on facebook
https://www.facebook.com/KM2SolutionsHonduras

Thanks!

Attention: OYE YOUTH ARE AT IT AGAIN

Check out OYE's latest progress report for Global Giving.  See the latest pictures and read the latest updates. Marathons, Soccer tournaments, Murals, and Yoga are just a few of the activities your favorite scholars have been challenging themselves with.

Here at OYE we are especially proud of Paola and Eric who pushed new boundries and defied the Honduran law of the SUN (Stay out of it!). Taking OYE's mantra of a heathly lifestyle to the next level these brave young scholars ran 13 miles in the blazing Honduran sun.

In other news, OYE is proud to announce a youth social media project in collaboration with Adobe. OYE scholars, after a rigorous training program, will teach 50 Progreseño youth the ins and outs of Adobe's latest photo and video editing software.  The ultimate goal of this project is not to learn how to use this software but to put the software to work through the creation of empowering youth projects. So stay tuned for updates and to see the incredible finished projects that OYE's youth create.

To see the project report please click on the link below:

http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/oyehonduras/updates/

OYE YOUTH LEADERSHIP TRAINING

Ahern-Kerndt Visit to OYE in El Progreso

On Saturday, February 19th, OYE board chair Trish Ahern, her 87 year old mother, Pat Kerndt from Lansing, Iowa, her sister Gretchen Kerndt from Fairbanks, Alaska and Trish’s husband, Patrick Ahern visited the new OYE offices in El Progreso, Honduras. The new OYE office, which they are still moving into, is awesome!

They are in the same Eco Pasaje complex as the old offices, but they now have a stand-alone two story building that gives the needed space including a large plenary meeting place on the second floor and an ample conference/meeting room on the first floor. We were there on a Saturday, which is a training day and meeting day and the place was teeming with positive energy and enthusiasm. In the morning there were two groups in “self-esteem” workshops for scholarship students (becados) in 7th through 9th grades and in the afternoon there were another two workshops of the same for the high school and college becados.

Now the staff will be able to work in its own office-- which even has a reception area! At the same time there is a dedicated space and equipment for the becados working on the Jovenes magazine, another space for the sound studio of the radio program, room for the book club and study groups as well as the many other activities going on.

The visitors also spent time with the four Mary Baldwin Social Work students A’ra, Shawnay, Felicia and Shanee who are spending the semester at OYE. That evening the staff and the visitors had a wonderful dinner at Las Tejas in El Progreso.